Diamonds in the Rough: Championship Golf on the Senior PGA Tour [Unabridged] [Hardcover]

Mark Shaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1998

We are living in the golden age of golf, and some of golf's finest players are celebrating their golden years. Legends such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, and Gary Player still make headlines, competing for $40 million on the Senior PGA Tour with fellow "over-fifty" newcomers Hale Irwin, Dr. Gil Morgan, David Graham, and Johnny Miller. In Diamonds in the Rough, journalist Mark Shaw spent a year on tour with these grand masters of the game, privy to their private thoughts and inspiring sense of play. The result: Shaw captures their dry wit, uncommon wisdom, and unforgettable personal stories of triumph and tragedy, bringing the 1997 Senior PGA Tour, now in its twentieth year, to dazzling life as never before.

It was a magical season featuring remarkable moments, including a miracle win by Vietnam veteran Buddy Allin, the spine-tingling ninth-hole playoff victory for the affable Irishman Bob Murphy, Japanese Isao Aoki's mystical round of 60, and colorful Chi Chi Rodriguez's quest for victory aided by lamb hormone shots, snake rings, and supercharged golf balls.

It was also the year Arnold Palmer, Jim Colbert, and Larry Gilbert announced they were battling cancer, recovering alcoholic Dana Quigley won his first tournament victory on the same day his father died, Gary Player achieved an inspiring win at the Senior British Open, and Dr. Gil Morgan and Hale Irwin went down to the wire for the much coveted Player of the Year honors.

It's all here--in vivid detail--the victories and bittersweet defeats. Filled with incredible play, fascinating stories, and hilarious anecdotes, Diamonds in the Rough is a true golf treasure.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What John Feinstein did to the PGA Tour in A Good Walk Spoiled, Mark Shaw does to the Senior Tour in Diamonds in the Rough. By chronicling an entire season, he peels off the public persona to find the personality underneath, and if there's one thing the Senior Tour is full of, it's personality. Golf's greatest mulligan, it is the ultimate in second chances in professional sports, and while the competition is every bit as intense and ego-driven as it is on the regular tour, there's also a congeniality and camaraderie that seeps into its atmosphere. Shaw captures that sensibility nicely, offering an open window into the ribbing and by-play. But the 1997 season was one of inspiring drama as well--with Gary Player winning the British Senior Open on the course and Arnold Palmer and Jim Colbert battling prostate cancer off of it. Shaw explores these worlds within a world quite well, capturing in the process the complex characters of such fairway legends as Chi Chi Rodriguez, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, and Hale Irwin. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly

Except for Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, all the most exciting golfers of the past half century, from Sam Snead, who is 84, to Johnny Miller, 50, are now playing on the Senior PGA Tour. They include Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin and six dozen others who won a total of 75 major championships before turning 50. Thus one can predict enormous interest in this book by the author of Nicklaus, all the more so because of Shaw's talent for the telling anecdote and his genuine affection for most of the athletes on the 1997 tour, which he followed from January to November. There was drama aplenty as Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan fought down to the last day, and when Irwin lost a skirmish but won the battle as the Senior PGA Tour Player of the Year. A pall was cast over the season, however, when Palmer announced he had cancer and when it became clear that Nicklaus's hip and back were still troubling him. But the ailing superstars had a productive season, with prize money totaling $40 million and lots of keen rivalries. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (May 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345417453
• ISBN-13: 978-0345417459
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,281,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not up to par, July 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Diamonds in the Rough: Championship Golf on the Senior PGA Tour (Hardcover)

This was a nice, fast read on life on the Senior PGA tour, but I didn't overpay for it ($2.50 in a bookstore bargain bin). All of the various stars are profiled so quickly, for the most part, that you don't really get a good sense of life on the tour or what many of them are like. I think the author liked his research a little too much, and was determined to use it. This isn't completely without merit, but I think only good-sized golf fans will want to get it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book about the greats of the game., August 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Diamonds in the Rough: Championship Golf on the Senior PGA Tour (Hardcover)

Arnie,Jack, Lee, Johnny, Chi Chi - this book brings them all to life. Shaw is a good storyteller and I felt like I was right there on the course with my idols.